The God Mars Book Two: Lost Worlds Read Online Free Page B

this is just wrong …”
    “We received your flash status report,” the
barely-cheery drone continues, talking to a long-lost but unwanted
relative. “We haven’t finished reviewing it all yet, but we look
forward to hearing from you directly. You may have detected our
inbound probes. They were intended for surveillance, given what
we’ve been monitoring on the surface, but they can serve to improve
our communications once they’re in orbit. Command is wondering if
you fired those warheads off as a signal, or if your situation is
threatened. Please send updated situation reports and lists of
needed supplies. Regret earliest material assistance will not
arrive for at least seven months. Looking forward to further
communications. The entire planet is celebrating your news. End
message and out.”
    I realize immediately: whatever elation I feel about
finally making contact is mixed with a sickly foreboding.
    “What the fuck was that?”
    I look up at Matthew, but then realize it was Anton’s
reaction over the Link. I can only shake my head.
    “Sorry sir,” he tries, “it’s just…” But he doesn’t
finish the thought.
    “Can you confirm point of origin?” Matthew asks him
heavily, his head apparently going into some of the dark places
mine did.
    “It’s Earth, no doubt,” Anton tells him.
    “No sign of any kind of satellite any of our local
friends could be using to screw with us?” Matthew presses. I
remember what Hatsumi Sakura told me: Others are listening. Rick
comes on and assures him the signal came from where it said it did.
He sounds tired, frustrated, not at all like a year’s worth of
efforts have just come to fruition.
    “But it’s Earth,” Kastl tries to get the sense of
success going again. “We did it.”
    I take a deep breath and nod, feeling my face
flush.
    “We did it,” Tru agrees quietly. But relief isn’t the
only thing I hear in her voice.
    “You got a speech ready?” Matthew asks me, at least
half seriously.
    “What would you say?” I ask him back. I
realize I’m shaking. Tru squeezes my hand.
    I take a long breath. Then I have MAI record with
video of the three of us:
    “This is Colonel Michael Ram, acting commander of the
UNMAC Mars Base Melas Two. With me is my second-in-command Colonel
Matthew Burke, and our civilian liaison Truganini Greenlove. We are
almost twelve hundred souls, having made it through extended Hiber
Sleep, all healthy despite a few recent casualties and injuries. We
have managed to restore this facility to functional status and have
partially recovered the Melas Three site, which we found abandoned
and gutted but structurally intact. We have sources of food, water
and breathable atmosphere to sustain us for the foreseeable
future.”
    All of this would have been in the basic situation
report Anton had been sending with our distress call for the last
two months, but I think they should hear it again fresh and with
faces attached. I get down to the difficult part.
    “Our situation is stable but uncertain. We have
detected no sign of nanotech or biological contamination, or
any further Disc activity, but we are far from alone here: There
are an unknown number of individuals who have managed to sustain
themselves in various societal groups on the surface, descendants
of the survivors of the Corporate Colonies. We roughly estimate
their numbers to be in the thousands. We have made productive
contacts with some, but others remain hostile due to fierce
competition for resources—for their sake I would request an
immediate renewal of humanitarian supply drops, including food,
survival gear and medical supplies. We do not have anything like a
completed census yet due to extremely limited resources and high
risks—some of these groups are well armed and suspicious of us, and
a number of our outreach attempts have been met with violence. I do
not believe they are in any immediate peril, but material relief
would likely be most welcome, and may go far in